Seasons Greetings with a new Orca, a lovely present of hope to us all. J pod, of the Southern Resident Orcas in the San Juans, has another baby, the fifth since last December. Along with three others born to K and L pods, that’s 8 new ones overall. There haven’t been this many births a year since 1977.

It’s a Boy. . . or a Girl.

It will take more observation to know its sex, but we can estimate that J54 arrived at about 400 pounds and 84” long, following the mom’s 15 to 18 month pregnancy. You can meet mom, J28, and baby above and in a short video recorded on 12-16-15 (about a minute and a half).

Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research also shared a video of earlier baby L123 and mother L103. He speculates that the number of successful pregnancies was helped by last year’s good salmon run. The moms' getting enough to eat while pregnant was important and will continue to be crucial during the first year of the babys’ lives when they are living on mommas’ milk. A special thank you to Balcomb for his years of dedication and introducing us to these Orcas.

Counting the Whales

While we in the Northwest are counting Orcas, the Pacific Whale Foundation is keeping good track of Hawaii’s humpbacks. This art piece includes a graph of some of their data and will be part of an upcoming exhibit at the LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum in January. The exhibit (see Sidebar) includes a wide range of mixed media art by the Whidbey Island Surface Design group of which I am a member. You might want to mark your new 2016 calendar sometime between January 4 and March 27 for a lovely LaConner visit for art and lunch.